Örnsköldsvik Municipality

Örnsköldsvik Municipality (pronounced Earn'sholds'veek) is a Swedish municipality in Västernorrland County in northern Sweden. Its seat is in the town Örnsköldsvik with circa 25,000 inhabitants. Other municipal towns include Husum, Köpmanholmen and Mellansel.

Geography

The city is situated near the northern end of the "High Coast", which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is located around 100 km south of Umeå and 550 km north of Stockholm. The area is dominated by forest, but it also contains minor areas of agriculture.

History

There are traces of human activity in the area from as early as 7000-8000 years ago.

The name comes from Governor Per Abraham Örnsköld (1762-1769).

Örnsköldsvik was founded as a market town (a köping) in 1842 and became a city in 1894. As a city, the most important business was trade and heavy industry. In the surrounding villages (now incorporated parts of the city itself) two major industrial ventures raised: MoDo as a pulp, paper, lodging combinate and Hägglunds as a heavy industrial company. Even today the ancestors of these two companies are of huge importance for the city. M-Real (ex-MoDo) is running one of Europe's largest pulp mills in the town Husum, 30 km north of Örnsköldsvik City, while Hägglunds is split into several companies, including Land Systems Hägglunds, a subsidiary of BAE Systems.

Transportation

Main road transportations are provided by the European route E4. The Örnsköldsvik Airport provides daily flights to and from the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport courtesy of SAS, and also charter flights to Turkey courtesy of Pegasus Airlines. Railway transportation will in the future be provided by high-speed railway Botniabanan, which is currently under construction. There's also a harbor, where cargo ships load and unload timber and other merchandise.

Education

In Örnsköldsvik there are at present local branches of two universities, Mid Sweden University and Umeå University.

Notable natives

Örnsköldsvik is the birthplace of many world-famous ice hockey players, including Peter Forsberg, Markus Näslund, Niklas Sundström, and the twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Samuel Påhlsson, also an ice hockey player, lived there for a long time but was born in Ånge. Many stars from hockey's previous generation, including Anders Hedberg, Thomas Gradin, and Anders Kallur were also either Örnsköldsvik natives (Hedberg) and/or played in the town for the MoDo Hockey club.

Malin Moström, captain and key player in the Sweden women's national football team is also a native of Örnsköldsvik.

Magdalena Forsberg, cross country skier and biathlete.

Hans Hedberg, sculptor known for his gigantic ceramic fruit.

Märta Norberg, outstanding cross country skier in the end of the 1940:s and beginning of 1950:s.

Sister cities

Örnsköldsvik's sister cities are:

Trivia

The asteroid 6795 Örnsköldsvik, found in 1993 by Swedish astronomers at the European Southern Observatory, was named after the city.
The name Örnsköldsvik is sometimes unofficially translated into English as Eagleshieldsbay.

External links

Örnsköldsvik - Official site
Mid-Sweden University College at Örnsköldsvik
Campus Örnsköldsvik at Umeå University
Örnsköldsvik airport
article Örnsköldsvik from Nordisk Familjebok (1922).

Municipalities of Sweden | Municipalities of Västernorrland County

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